New Strides In Metal-Metal Bonding

The periodic table, after more than a century of valuable service, is still yielding surprises about the chemistry of the elements. Two just-reported examples are the synthesis of a dichromium complex with the shortest metal-metal bond length on record and the synthesis of the first stable magnesium(I) compounds that also happen to contain rare Mg–Mg bonds.

The focus of each research paper reporting these two advances is different, yet the chemistry that made the compounds . . .